I was walking through the set the other day with the art department PA. The script called for a scene in a hair salon, but for some reason, the location manager couldn’t find a real salon that fit our needs. (Something to do the cost of shutting down a salon for an entire day.)
So, we built a salon set. It looked exactly like a real salon, except there was no roof, and the faucets didn’t work. I know, because I turned the handles.
“I picked those out,” the art PA said.
I was instantly very jealous.
You see, in my job, nothing I do ever winds up on screen. I clean up the conference room for table reads, deliver scripts, and answer phones. Basically, organizational duties that will never, ever, ever affect anything that the audience sees or hears.
Now, these particular faucets weren’t a big deal. If they were, they would have been picked out by the set designer, art director, or really anybody other than the PA. They’ll be in the background, probably out of focus, unnoticed by anyone but this art PA, and maybe her mom.
But still, every time this episode airs, she can point at the screen and say, “See that shiny blob over the character’s shoulder? Yeah, I did that.”
7 Responses
Having your name on a gravestone prominently in the shot as it gets machine gunned to bits is a lot of fun. It’d be even better if it was in a movie anybody’d want to watch. 🙂
When I was an Office PA I dampened this horrible feeling by making sure I bought standout things at the set dec sale. “I own that now!” is cool too.
Our prop guy always uses the crew list to pick out names for envelopes and lists and the like. He asks first, of course. It’s always pretty fun when he picks your name to put on things of minor importance that get screen time. Another time I was stoked that my old car was in a background shot. They even had to change the license plate for continuity!